Wimbledon classic dessert with a healthy twist: strawberries and whipped labneh, strained yoghurt, instead of cream. Loss on the calorie intake but no loss on flavour.
Wimbledon and strawberries
They more than coincide: Wimbledon tennis tournament and strawberries go together hand in hand, racket in spoon.
Admittedly, reality more often than not is not the glorious sunshine over the courts that you picture when visualising the two. But it’s such an intuitive pairing of the athletic, graceful players competing on the grass with the spectators dipping into bowls of the red and white dessert! With a glass of bubbly on the side.
Thus strawberries and cream are the time-honoured Wimbledon tradition, ripe for an update in my view. Labneh vs. cream: fifteen love!
How to make labneh
Labneh (aka labna, labni, labne, lebni, or labani) is a cross between yoghurt and soft cheese, well known in the Middle Eastern countries, in Central Asia as well as Greece and Turkey.
It is made ridiculously simply, by straining full fat yoghurt through a muslin cloth. The drained liquid is called whey, and it’s a fabulous ingredient in bread making, added to flour instead of water.
Labneh is usually more popular in the savoury dishes and dips like the one with olive oil and za'atar. However much I adore that combination, one of my top twenty (and top ten simplest) desserts is labneh with honey which I can eat by a bucketful.
Making labneh at home is super easy: just add some salt to good, Greek-style yoghurt to help drain the liquid quicker. Such a small amount of salt won’t affect labneh’s taste by the way.
Pour the yoghurt onto a strainer lined with muslin or cheesecloth (I suspect it’s one and the same thing), set over a bowl and keep it in the fridge up to a couple of days.
Scrape your labneh into a bowl and keep it in the fridge for a week or even longer.
A 500g (a pint) tub of yoghurt will usually produce about 250-280g (9-10 oz) labneh.
Whip it!
Whipping the labneh might seem an unnecessary task as there’s no sugar added in the whipping, but I firmly believe texture is as important as taste, especially when it comes to a dainty dessert.
Whip labneh by hand as it only needs a few whisks to turn fluffier, moussier and airier.
If you’re not using the whole portion for the dessert, you can still whip the lot and keep the leftover amount for a za’atar and oil combo on another day.
How to prepare the dessert
You can just chop the strawberries up, sprinkle them with sugar and immediately spoon into bowls with labneh, but just like with the whipping, this extra effort is worth it.
Macerating strawberries, which means letting them sit with sugar for at least fifteen minutes, releases the juices and makes them absorb the sugar, thus making the final concoction unbelievably tasty.
So I’d advise to prepare them a little ahead, perhaps while you whip the labneh.
Then it’s up to you whether you want to fold the strawberries into the labneh or layer the two in a bowl or a tumbler. I have obviously chosen the latter here, for the benefits of photography. And isn’t it nicer to eat something that looks as pretty as it tastes? You’ll mash and stir it all anyway when you tuck in.
Strawberries with labneh should be served straight away or the acidity of the strawberry juice will cause labneh to separate. But both elements can be made ahead and kept in the fridge, while you’re cheering the singles and doubles.
More strawberry dessert recipes
Italian style homemade ice cream without eggs with pureed fresh strawberry swirl. It’s not always all about raspberry ripple, you know.
Strawberry fool is the supreme of strawberries and cream, with layers of vanilla scented whipped cream and gorgeous fresh strawberry puree, barely sweetened.
Strawberry crumble cake, the easiest cake batter in the world thickly covered with fresh strawberries and finished with crunchy crumble topping. The only summer cake recipe you'll ever need.
More yoghurt desserts
Blueberry parfait recipe for a dessert or breakfast dish, delicious at any time of day. This blueberry parfait is made with roasted blueberries and strained yoghurt.
Strawberry yoghurt cake with fresh strawberry icing, baked in a Bundt tin. It’s tender and buttery like the best pound cake, with fragrant fresh strawberries giving it a pink tinge.
Healthy, relatively low-calorie no added sugar ice cream, yoghurt flavour, totally delicious and sweetened with honey and raisins. No churn yoghurt and honey ice cream, amazing served with chopped walnuts.